031: VIDEO

[intheblanks]

[He's sticking a sign to the door of the clinic. Here, let him read it to you.]

Symptoms of seasonal flu: stuffy nose, sore throat, aches, shivers, cough, sneezing, headache, mild fever, and the incurable urge to spread it around in public.

If you've got one or more of these and you're not pregnant, suffering with a pre-existing health problem or at least reasonably certain you'll be dead before the weekend's out, don't come to the clinic. If imminent death is a possibility- [He taps the phone number at the bottom of the sign] call.

We've got a bigger crowd than usual in today already. Let's try not to turn it into a pandemic.


[ooc: have at! backtags and everything except House doubles more than welcome ♥ }

Comments

[thesweetesthoney]

[He's staggering in - he's definitely drunk - and right into Chase. He catches Chase by his jacket and looks up at him]

You're definitely not my guard.

[intheblanks]

[It's a little bit like looking in a mirror after his own all-night sessions. Or it would be, if the mirror fell on him.

Chase catches the stranger around the waist, holding him up before he's garrotted by his own jacket.]

And you don't look like Whitney Huston. [Wow, nice breath.] Smell like her, though.

[thesweetesthoney]

I have no idea who you're talking about.

[He looks up at Chase - really looks at him]

I would definitely remember you.

[intheblanks]

[And that manages to unsettle him more than the drunken grab. He blinks back, for a minute.]

...I'm flattered. Lets find somewhere to sit you down.

[thesweetesthoney]

[He struggles but generally helps with getting somewhere to sit]

Where am I?

[intheblanks]

[Chase is fortunately quite significantly stronger than he looks. He's an adept manhandler. Though the thud into the chair might be heavy.]

The clinic at the City Hospital. Technically we don't offer appointments out of hours.

[thesweetesthoney]

I just know I was in that stupid room and then suddenly I'm free.

I may have gotten really drunk.

[Maybe. Possibly. Yes.]

Are you a nurse?

[intheblanks]

...I'm the surgeon on call tonight.

[He's enough of a brat to have to one up the 'doctor' that would also be accurate. After standing over Jack for a minute, he sighs and walks over to get a paper cup from the fountain in the corner.]

Here, drink this, it's better for you. What room do you mean?

[thesweetesthoney]

Doctors come pretty as you?

[And this isn't a porn set?]

With Lucinda. Lulu. Lucinda.

[intheblanks]

Apparently. [He sits, picking up one of Jack's hands to wrap around the cup.] With Lucinda. That explains a lot.

[thesweetesthoney]

[He takes the cup and drinks a sip]

It should.

They didn't even tell me where -

[He snorts and laughs, and it's the manic laugh of a drunk]

This is terrible freedom.

[intheblanks]

[You can't squeeze sense out of a stone cold drunk: lessons learned in childhood. Chase takes the route of just going with it and hoping at some point it will all stop being quite so far over his head.]

Pretty sure it'll feel worse in the morning. What kind of freedom were you hoping for?

[thesweetesthoney]

[He's taking another drink]

Something that didn't feel so poorly earned or cheaply bought, although I'm worth nothing now. Less than nothing.

[intheblanks]

[Oh good, the maudlin phase. If Cameron were around Chase might try to pass this off onto her - she loves coddling people.]

Look...I'm sure [Wild guess] you'll be able to make things up to Lucinda...

[thesweetesthoney]

[Chase is getting a very cutting look - even drunk, Jack can manage that]

Lucinda is the last thing I'm worried about.

[intheblanks]

[It's still not quite impressive enough to make Chase flinch.]

She was so important you named her three times a minute ago. I have no idea who she is. Or who you are, for that matter, but you're the one currently more likely to puke on my clinic floor.

[thesweetesthoney]

My cellmate. That's who she is. I haven't had a moment's peace in months.

[He rubs his temples]

No one here knows who I am. And that's a freedom, too.

[intheblanks]

That's a progressive prison system. [Chase is just going to sit close enough to intervene if it looks like anyone's falling off their chair.]

What did you do?

[To get locked up, or to be so notorious, who knows.]

[thesweetesthoney]

[He laughs]

I did my duty and took my father's place, that's what I did. But God had other ideas.

My father lived. He was supposed to die. But he didn't.

[intheblanks]

Wow, what an arse.

[Can drunks detect sarcasm? Chase looks away, wondering how much hell he'd get for letting him sleep this off in a ward room overnight.]

I don't know how much of a say God gets in who lives or dies, but I know he doesn't pay attention to petitions on the subject.

[thesweetesthoney]

My father gave away chunks and pieces of the kingdom, he partitioned people and land and they still treat him like God's favored son when I know-

I know-

[It's David.]

They should have killed me. Why didn't they just kill me.

[intheblanks]

[This is a lot more than Chase is going to be able to unravel in a night -and he shouldn't want to but -]

In terms of ways to be free, death really sucks.

[thesweetesthoney]

Where I'm from, I think it's the only way.

[David bought his life, over and over, and sold it again to a man who was more cruel than favored, cunning than anything else]

[intheblanks]

Keep living and you might have time to find something better. [Allow him to be a hypocrite a moment.] Probably not at the bottom of a bottle.

[thesweetesthoney]

There's nothing left for me but a walled up a room with a woman who does not know I hate her.

[He wants Joseph. He wants Joseph so badly there is an ache in his gut for it, always, a hole that cannot be filled]

I need another drink.

[But he drinks his water instead]